I don't see a line for student loan repayment. I ask because that was a topic of discussion on a recent thread, and you indicated you'd decided not to stiff those who paid for your education and trusted you to fulfill your obligation.
Yes, I live in NC too, and my taxes and insurance are under $2000 for my primary residence, and when we leave the city and move to our country land (after the last of our children is out of high school), it'll be considerably cheaper still. The South is an affordable place to live, which many people up North are discovering.
I have teens right now, and I assure you that your budget will go up when yours reach this age! Ours are far from spoiled and don't ask for outrageous things . . . but their braces are expensive, their car insurance is expensive (yet we want them to learn to drive), and college is expensive (even with scholarships). These are all things we want to provide and are able to provide without financial sacrifice, but the costs are high! Some things are negotiable (i.e., cost of a prom dress, whereas others are fixed). As you indicated, we see this as a blip on the radar -- a decade or so when our expenses are high. You do need to enter these years with a realistic expectation of what you'll be paying.
And, yes, you do need to be sure you have what we term "short term savings" for unexpected big costs; for example, I will probably be buying a new dishwasher next week. Things always happen.
The south is great in some regards. Are you planning on sending your kids to in state schools? NC has some great values. I think UNC consistently makes top rankings for "most affordable school in the US" when they factor in quality of education.
I'm also not discounting scholarships. I was chatting with our school system's superintendent yesterday and he mentioned HS graduates in Wake County received $100,000,000 in scholarship money this year. Pretty amazing amount of money sloshing around.
I won't be surprised if kid expenses go up. What portion of those expenses we pay is negotiable of course. There's always savings, part time jobs, side hustles, raking leaves, mowing grass, etc that the kids can do to make some $$. Let's just say each kid won't be getting their own car when they turn 16. The good news is that at some point (after HS or college) the expenses will drop precipitously.
Short term savings are accounted for in my house and car budgets. I have $1500/yr for house replacement items like roof, carpet, appliances (like dishwasher), etc. And $1000/yr for car replacement. In my planning, I assumed I could get a mid range dishwasher for $350 on sale and that the dishwasher would last 8 years on average. Our last dishwasher (3.1 years ago) was mid-range and we paid $270 delivered (after rebates). I'm handy enough to install these things myself, and I can watch youtube, so I can replace parts as they break. Realistically we'll get more than 8 years out of the DW (it's running like new right now at almost half my estimated service life, with zero repairs to date).
You're not going to address the question about loan repayment, are you?
The South is great in every regard. I will never live anywhere else.
Yes, my oldest is a student at one of the sixteen UNC-system schools right now, and I am very pleased with both the education she's receiving and the cost of that education. I am a huge proponent of our state schools. Our
average state school is stronger academically than our
average private school; I have the impression that isn't true in other places.
However, scholarship money isn't quite so ample as you seem to think. In my daughter's graduating class, only one boy received a full-ride, and he was going military (they're about the only ones who still get one-source full-rides). My daughter is on about 50% scholarship, and I think she was #2 in terms of scholarship money earned in her class. The majority of our students get nothing in the way of scholarships. So how should you approach this? Save. Save. Save. Save as if you will pay the entire bill yourself. Then have the student apply for scholarships, and hope that you don't spend all you saved. My oldest applied for probably 40, and she won two. Because I am a teacher at her school, I know that she was runner-up for about four more, and I almost wish I didn't know she'd been that close. Incidentally, she was an ideal candidate: she graduated with a 4.6 GPA, lots of AP classes, huge number of extra-curriculars and community service, and she is in a scholarship-heavy major (some majors offer more scholarship money than others). My same-aged niece, who had a similar GPA and academics but fewer activities and a different major . . . won nothing, and she'd tried just as hard. Getting a scholarship is tough. Again, the majority of our students, even those with excellent grades, get nothing.
Having said that, I would not be surprised to learn that Wake county students earn more scholarship money than students from other counties. Why? Look who lives in the area: The children of the professors from several colleges. The children of the high-tech workers in the Research Triangle. Public schools in that area (and the surrounding vicinity) are always ranked best in NC, and it has to do with the kids who feed into those schools. Lots of educated parents, lots of parental support, lots of successful students. That also means that the competition is tighter in those areas.